NETWORK PLAN NEAR DEADLINE

Two Orlando investors, including veteran broadcaster Walter Windsor, will know a week from today if the Star Television Network of vintage-TV shows will become a reality.

Windsor, whose Orlando broadcasting career included 15 years as general manager of WFTV-Channel 9, said earlier this week that he and Star's founding partners have a Sept. 1 deadline to entice enough affiliates.

The company missed two earlier deadlines to begin airing shows because financial backing fell through. There is no guarantee that the network will make it this time, Windsor said. If it receives the necessary affiliate agreements, however, Star will be on the air by Nov. 1.

Windsor said Star will meet today with prospective station affiliates in New York. The network would be based in Orlando at Universal Studios Florida and would air 20to 30-year-old programs, including Honey West, Judge Roy Bean and Mr. and Mrs. North.

Star's plan is to sign on small, independent stations that cannot afford to buy popular, expensive syndicated programs such as Cheers and Night Court. The greatest expense in an independent station's budget - accounting for 40 percent to 50 percent of operating costs - is the purchase of television shows, according to the Association of Independent Television Stations in New York.

"Essentially, this network is born of a need of independent stations that are struggling to survive," Windsor said. "Their programming costs are very high."

If the project pans out, Star expects to sign up WAYK-Channel 56 and WAYQ-Channel 26, which broadcast jointly in Melbourne and Daytona Beach. Affiliates would be required to put up a refundable deposit of $1,500 to $175,000, depending on the station's size.

Stations would not pay for the programs but would give Star up two minutes an hour to sell national advertising. The stations would also agree to air a number of 30-minute "direct-response" programs. Those programs would sell items like kitchen gadgets and real estate courses through a toll-free number.

At this point, though, Star has only one week left to sign up additional affiliates. If it does not reach a certain number by Sept. 1 - and Windsor won't say what that level is - the project "will be a scrub," he said, "or postponed."

Starr is not releasing revenue projections. Its programs would be broadcast by satellite, just like shows aired on ABC, CBS or NBC. Star would also expect to develop its own programming and buy some newer shows once it becomes established.

Since it was first announced two years ago, Star Television Network has failed to get the financial backing of about $25 million that it needed. Star's investors backed out after the October 1987 stock market crash.

The network expects that its viewers would be older people who saw the vintage shows when they originally aired in the 1950s and '60s, or younger people who are caught up in the nostalgia craze.

Banks and investment capitalists, however, have been cool to the project. There already are several cable-TV networks that air a fair amount of vintage programming, including Turner Broadcasting System, Nickelodeon's "Nick at Nite" service and The Family Channel, according to the Cable Television Association.

Additionally, fewer investors are interested in start-up projects, and it is even more difficult to garner interest in broadcasting. Broadcast-industry advertising has slowed substantially since the early 1980s, when national sales were posting double-digit gains.

Out of desperation, Star contacted billionaires Donald Trump and Marvin Davis. Trump's organization never responded, while Davis' associates said the project was too small for the Los Angeles investor, Windsor said.

"As a result of Black Monday, people wouldn't even talk to you about start-up projects," Windsor said. "We canvassed all the major sources."

Also, Windsor, his partners Bamberg-Handley Inc., the Orlando-based broadcast-industry consultants, and a third, minority partner in Texas hooked up with Dale W. Lang, a New York media investor whose holdings include Success and Working Woman magazine.

Lang was interested in providing Star with financial backing but would do so only after Star agreed to air direct-response programs to guarantee it advertising revenue.

Anything can be sold - from Ginzu knives to Elvis Presley tapes. A company Star expects to work with, Quantum Marketing International Inc. of Fort Washington, Pa., concentrates its sales in cookware - The Great Wok of China - mixers and knives.

Lang's other insistence was that Star have a set number of affiliates in place by Sept. 1. "We're optimistic, but it's by no means certain," Windsor said. If the company gets the affiliates, he said, "we don't expect to be competitive with the networks. We expect to carve out a real but small niche."